Ahhh, Julia!

Okay, okay---so I haven't written anything about Julia and Josef in a LONG LONG time. It's not because they haven't been the humorous amazing children that I believe them to be, but rather that I have been making an honest effort at earning my keep by being the best housewife I can possibly be. Amazingly, I still haven't figured out how to keep more than three rooms of the house clean at the same time---but that is neither here nor there right now. At some point in time I hope to go back and share such memorable stories as the weekend after Thanksgiving in which while having Russ and Kelly Nix over for dinner Julia decided to do "nastics" in the living room and dislocated her elbow. After a trip to MedExpress fearing a broken bone and wonderful doctors who did x-rays followed by a simple twist of the arm to remedy the situation, Julia announced while getting put into the car, "Well-that was some kind of something!". Or how we went to "Night in Bethlehem" at St. Mary's Church in early December and Julia had a fantastic time petting the live goats and visiting with the lovely couple dressed as Mary and Josef who were sitting in a make-shift stable. So much so that she actually sat down on a bail of hay and spent about 25 minutes visiting, asking questions, and talking about how apparently baby Jesus hadn't popped out of her tummy like Josef had already popped out of mommy's! And how afterwards throughout the Christmas season she told pretty much everyone that she had been to Bethlehem and had met Mary and Joseph asking, "Have you?"! Needless to say, we had a wonderfully memorable Thanksgiving and Christmas with Julia's antics and Josef's smiling bubbly personality growing daily. But that is not what drove me to sit down to share a story with you right now. It was the following:

During our visit to Maryland for Christmas we had the joy of staying at Auntie Laura's and Uncle Keith's new home. Julia was delighted because when we had visited them on Thanksgiving, Auntie Laura had played Sleeping Beauty for her. It had been her first official viewing of any of the Princess movies. Staying there for Christmas meant to her that she would be able to see this delightful movie again. She watched this movie several times during our stay (an introduction to Uncle Keith that children for some reason never tire of the same old thing over and over).

Now that we are back home I asked Frank if he would hook up our VCR because I too had the Princess movies, but only old video tapes! (AND YES---there is a point to this story that I am walking into backwards!) So yesterday was the day. Frank spent time hooking up the VCR and I dug out the first two Princess movies that I could find. One happened to be what was my favorite as a child, The Little Mermaid. It had been a LONG time since I had watched this movie and I was pleasantly suprised at how many words I could remember to what had been some of my favorite songs! We watched and I sang and I had a nice memorable evening with my daughter watching a memorable movie. This morning when she asked to watch it again of course I said yes. While she and Josef were watching I went back to my renewed dedication (the effort to be a better housewife) and was putting the dishes away in the kitchen. However, I could not help but sing along happily and every once in a while pop my head in to see part of the movie as I joyful belted out the old familiar tunes. During the scene in which Ariel sings her most famous song I took the time to come out to watch and sing. My sweet Julia turned around to then watch me with a quirky smile on her face. I will now confess that I thought to myself, "How nice! I think she is enjoying my singing along!" But then she opened her mouth and stated, "Mommy-You shouldn't sing so many songs. Ariel should!". Thank you, Julia.

ps...the picture was taken when we arrived home from MedExpress-Julia was showing how she could move her arm again!